My Favourite Homemade Almond Milk + Step By Step Photos

I first tried making homemade almond milk a couple years ago, after many of you told me so many amazing things about it. It’s so creamy! It’s better than store bought! It’s a cinch to make! Homemade almond milk is the best!

And you know what? My first couple tries didn’t exactly knock it out of the park. Two words come to mind: hot mess! I used a cheesecloth and things didn’t go very smoothly, if you catch my drift. I’m sure some of you have a lot more finesse with a cheesecloth, but I did not seem to be one of those people.

This time, I finally took the plunge and purchased a nut milk bag (feel free to giggle). Also called sprouting bags, these mesh straining bags make homemade nut and seed milks (among other things) a total breeze. I cannot wait to explore its many uses.

This time around, my almond milk making process was indeed a breeze.

Here are some step by step photos to show you my process. You should also know that every time I type “step by step” NKOTB starts playing in my head. I don’t even mind it.

We are going to soak a cup of raw almonds overnight or for 8 hours or longer. Sometimes if I’m in a time crunch I just soak them for 1 hour or so and it still turns out fine. Rinse and drain the almonds and pop them into your blender along with 3-4 cups of filtered water (I like 3.5 cups water in this recipe).

Which nuts do you think your body would rather digest – the dry, hard as a rock nuts or the plump, juicy nuts?

Sorry, that sounded all weird and awkward.

My favourite flavour combo is a whole vanilla bean, a couple Medjool dates, cinnamon, and a pinch of sea salt. Oh my lanta. It’s intensely vanilla flavoured with notes of caramel and cinnamon. The secret to an intense vanilla flavour is blending an entire vanilla bean. Just chop it up and toss the whole bean into the blender. You’ll be left with some amazing vanilla almond milk. Of course you can always use vanilla extract or liquid sweeteners too. If using the dates and/or vanilla bean, add them along with the almonds and water. If you simply want to add a liquid sweetener or vanilla extract, you can add them now or at the end. Your call.

Blend for 1 minute on the highest speed. Let’s go TURBO mode!!!!

Turbo mode scares me.

Place your bag over a large bowl and slowly pour in the milk. Thank you Eric for moonlighting as a hand model once again.

A lot of the milk will filter right through the bag without any effort.

But to get all of the milk out, you’ll need to do some gentle squeezing to encourage the milk through. This process took me a few minutes. As you can see in the photo on the right, I was left with about 1 cup of almond pulp.

I rinsed the blender out quickly and poured the milk back into the blender. I do this because I find it easier to pour the milk from the blender into the jar rather than from a large bowl into the jar. If you have a wide mouth funnel feel free to use that.

Check out those tiny specks of vanilla! I blended in a bit of cinnamon and a pinch of fine grain sea salt for even more flavour enhancing. Tell me, what’s better than Vanilla Cinnamon Caramel flavour?

Nothing.

You can use the almond pulp for all kinds of things like oatmeal, hummus, homemade granola, smoothies, cookie or muffin batter, crackers, or you can even dehydrate it and then blend it up to make almond meal. Oh, and you can freeze it too.

Man oh man, it tasted so lovely straight from the blender. I can assure you, it gets even better as it chills in the fridge.

I’ve never been a big milk drinker, but this almond milk had me going back to the fridge again and again and again for little sips. I can’t promise I’m organized enough to make this on a regular basis, but it’s a fun option to have up my sleeve when I’m feeling motivated or just want a special treat.

Homemade Vanilla Cinnamon Almond Milk

Creamy, lightly sweet, and so satisfying - homemade almond milk is a true luxury! My favourite flavour combo is a whole vanilla bean, a couple Medjool dates, cinnamon, and a pinch of sea salt. Oh my lanta. It’s intensely vanilla flavoured with notes of caramel and cinnamon. The secret to an intense vanilla flavour is blending an entire vanilla bean. Just chop it up and toss the whole bean into the blender. Not to worry if you don't have one on hand though; a half a teaspoon of vanilla extract will work just fine. I recommend this nut milk bag for straining.

Yield3.5 cups

Prep Time10 Minutes

Cook time0 Minutes

Total Time10 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds, soaked in water

3.5 cups filtered water

2-4 pitted Medjool dates*, to taste (I used 2 large)

1 whole vanilla bean*, chopped (or 1/2-1 tsp vanilla extract)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

small pinch of fine grain sea salt, to enhance the flavour

Directions:

Place almonds in a bowl and cover with water. It’s preferred to soak them overnight (for 8-12 hours) in the water, but you can get away with soaking for 1-2 hours in a pinch.

Rinse and drain the almonds and place into a blender along with filtered water, pitted dates, and chopped vanilla bean.

Blend on highest speed for 1 minute or so.

Place a nut milk bag over a large bowl and slowly pour the almond milk mixture into the bag. Gently squeeze the bottom of the bag to release the milk. This took me about 3-5 minutes to get all the milk out.

Rinse out blender and pour the milk back in. Add the cinnamon and pinch of sea salt and blend on low to combine.

Pour into a glass jar to store in the fridge for up to 3-5 days. Shake jar very well before using as the mixture separates when sitting. Enjoy with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies for a real treat. This milk is also lovely with cereal.

Notes: If your dates or vanilla bean are dry/stiff, soak in water to soften before use. You can also use another sweetener of your choice like maple syrup. Same goes for vanilla – feel free to use vanilla extract for a more subtle vanilla flavour.

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You might be wondering – If I don’t have a nut milk bag can I use a fine mesh sieve? Yes you can. I did a trial using my sieve. I didn’t find the milk got as smooth compared to using a nut milk bag, but if you strain it several times, it comes out decent. Also, feel free to try a cheesecloth, but I’m definitely not the person to give you advice using that method.

What about the cost?

Homemade almond milk can be cheaper than store bought or it can be more expensive; it really depends on your ingredients. When I see bulk almonds on sale, I like to stock up and buy a big bag. Pop a bag in the freezer to ensure they stay fresh.

To avoid almonds sprayed with the chemical propylene oxide, please see this article and this handy guide to common brands that do and do not use the chemical. If you are concerned about propylene oxide on your almonds be sure to check with your almond retailer to see what sterilization method is used.

Have you ever made homemade almond milk before?

Where do you buy almonds? Any good deals out there in store or online?

Thanks for the post! I have made homemade almond milk and loved it. I just don’t find it very economical. When I made it I soaked for 12h, used a regular blender and then poured it through panty-hose, worked like a charm!

Wow, this post was insanely perfectly timed! I JUST got a vitamix, and wanted homemade almond milk to be the first thing I made in it. I woke up this morning ready to tackle it, browsed the web for help, and lo and behold came across your awesome tutorial! It helped make the process so easy! I love the addition of dates, vanilla, and cinnamon. So good! Now I’m going to try making your GF vegan chocolate chip cookies (with coconut oil instead of earth balance) to go with my almond milk and I will be in heaven!! :)

I just bought a couple vanilla beans today and am soaking my almonds to make the milk in the morning, I just love the taste, and doesn’t have the additives like store bought. It is so easy and quick to make!
I always use a fine mesh strainer as its easy to rinse out the leftover pulp and clean.
We have our old fashioned oats with almond milk, sometimes without cooking them, just soak in the almond milk for 10 minutes, add flax, bananas, pumpkin seeds, or whatever and you have a yummy and very filling breakfast.

This looks amazing, I’ll have to give it a go. I thought I would mention that I too am now trying to avoid carrageenan and the Silk True Almond doesn’t have any. Just thought I’d mention it if your in a pinch and don’t have any homemade on hand :)

This looks so much better than the store bought stuff! I love the idea of using dates as the sweetener. I’ve wanted to try making my own almond milk for a long time, but I was a bit intimidated by the process. But, after reading this post, it doesn’t seem difficult at all! I can’t wait to give it a try. I just need to get a nut milk bag – the whole cheesecloth mess is what was scaring me away from trying it before.

Ang,
Thank you SO much for the info on pasteurized almonds. I knew they had changed the laws about that, but I was under the impression that they were all just being steam pasteurized. I had no idea about the PPO!

I’m not sure! my guess would be that you could dehydrate the leftover pulp, process it into a meal, and then measure the amount of almond meal leftover and subtract that from the weight of the almonds. sounds like a lot of work lol

Great tutorial – thanks!
I have been wanting to get a nut milk bag and this is a great reminder. Can they be reused? The expense was one of the reasons I was procrastinating!
I have been making almond milk for a few yrs but never added anything – your recipe sounds delicious! It is hard to make the milk often enough to keep up with smoothies and cereal daily but I try as best I can as it feels so much more pure than the store bought stuff.
Thanks for the tips on the pulp also – I have tried dehydrating in oven (just got a dehydrator and have yet to use it with this) and it did not come out great. Your ideas are wonderful and I am glad to hear I can freeze it as it is tough to use up before it goes bad (it’s a lot of pulp to keep up with!)
Your posts are always INCREDIBLE – thank you!

WOW, I am super excited that I found your blog and in particular, this recipe for almond milk. I gave it a try and found it easy and delicious. I also was quite intrigued by the soaking of the almonds. Never before had I done that and what a difference it made.
After reading about your debacle with cheesecloth, I decided I would not try that but was very eager to make a batch. Not wanting to wait until I was able to purchase a nut milk bag, I decided to try using a fresh out of the package knee high stocking. It worked like a charm and allowed for the filtration of the milk while retaining the solids.
To add some sweetness, I added just a bit of pure maple syrup. MMMmmmm! It is certainly the best almond milk I have ever consumed!
I plan to add some melted lard to the retained almond solids and harden it back up to give to the birds in my backyard.
This whole process has been just wonderful and I have enjoyed learning about this delicious and nutritious drink. Thank you very much.

I have a 4 cup cuisinart food processer/chopper. Do you think it can handle the nuts? I’d have to do the recipe in smaller batches but I have blended soaked nuts in there before with no problem actually. I love your recipes Angela they’re brilliant. I go through Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk Like nobody’s business but your recipe looks so much better!! With the dates and the real vanilla! To die for, honestly.I think I would go with buying a paint bag at a hardware store, even if I could track down a nut bag in Edmonton I can’t afford one right now!

These photos are beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I have thought about making my own almond milk many times… especially since your post on vegan milk and that pesky ingredient carrageenan was brought to our attention! I will definitely be giving this a shot soon.
Also, as a fellow Ontarian, I know affordable almonds are tough to come by. I buy mine at either Costco or The Bulk Barn. But I always keep my eye out for sales!

Lovely pics. This looks so decadent. I usually just make mine plain, but never just drink it, and I can imagine I might enjoy it if I gave it a little oomph. Might have more luck converting the kids this way, too. I agree 100% that the milk bag gives better results. I use mine in coffee and the metal sieve really did not give a good result for that purpose.

Thanks for sharing this. You made it look so easy! I giggled right on cue with “nut milk bag” and when I saw your note about giggling that made me giggle even more! The “Oh my lanta” was a good one too :) So silly!

Thank you Angela!
A couple of months ago I came back home with some upseting blood test results and decided to make some changes. I came across your blog and step by step, I made a difference in my health and daily routine and your story and delicious recipes me a lot!!
Today I received some follow-up results and I couldn’t be happier! Within 2 months I went from possibly 2-3 pills a day for the rest of my life to perfect lab results! I can’t wait to show them to my “nutrispicious” doctor :) I think I just made that word up:D. Greetings from Cluj, Romania

After I initially commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on whenever
a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment.
Perhaps there is an easy method you can remove me from that service?
Thanks!

Your page is my go to for so many recipes and ideas. I love that you are so practical. Here in the Philadelphia area I get my almonds at Trader Joe’s. They seem to have the safest (according to the article you posted) and best prices around.
I love the milk recipe. It also makes a wonderful hot chocolate with some nice cocoa powder and a touch of stevia or another date or two whipped in.
Keep them coming Angela!

This has been really fun to play with!
I was too impatient to go out and buy a milk bag, so I just sewed (4 times on the seam) two sides of a handkerchief (feels kind of like a linen material) together. Perfect. The “teat” shape of the handkerchief made for an intriguing “milking” experience, lol!
Also, after wringing out the nut pulp, I was left with 1/2 a cup of very smooth “butter.” Having heard rumours of nut cheeses, I added a 1/4 tsp of salt to this, and the result was a cream-cheese-like texture and taste.
I’m going to keep playing, but this has been very fun!

Made the almond milk!! Homerun!! I found a package of 3 “Got It” reusable produce bags made of a very fine mesh for $8.95 Cdn. Worked really well. Next time I am going to use all 3 bags inside each other to see if it will speed up the straining process. Almond milk was really good. Almond crackers…not so good… My next time will be making a combo of both the oat milk and the almond milk together…